


be still my indelible friend

by lancenoble



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sharing Body Heat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 22:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18679000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lancenoble/pseuds/lancenoble
Summary: obligatory cold winter sharing a tent/bed/body heat fic i cut from tender mercy (u dont have to read that to read this)





	be still my indelible friend

 

“You smell like wet dog.”

“That’s hardly my fault,” Throndir said as he tied the tent flaps shut as tight as they could go. Kodiak whined. The storm had turned from snow to sleet to rain over the course of an hour, but it was still far too cold to be blundering about and getting even more lost in it. So, early as it was, they made camp. Ephrim pet Kodiak in a comforting rhythm, in time with the rain drumming at his back through watertight canvas. He shoved himself further back into the corner to make room for Throndir as he finished closing off the flaps, caught between his rumpled bedroll and the meager supply of herbs and cuttings to bring back to the garden.

The two person tent they were in would have been fine for just Throndir and Kodiak— and it had been, up until an errant branch tore through Ephrim’s tent last night and wrecked it. Now it would have to serve two people, yes, and a person-sized dog. Who was wet.

It could be worse, Ephrim told himself. By the fifth night, he was even used to it.

“Do you think it’ll let up soon?” He asked, and Throndir grimaced.

“Doesn’t look like it,” he said, tying up the flaps with knots Ephrim would sit and pick apart in the morning.

After the sun set, or their bodies told them it had, they often sat facing each other, water-warped playing cards spread out between them, a torch sputtering quietly beside them to warm the tent and give them light.

“It’d be alright if it weren’t so freezing,” Throndir muttered, drawing a card.

“It’d be alright if it weren’t raining,” Ephrim said, laying out a flush.

“That's true. How—ugh.” Throndir shook his head with a little smile and relinquished his third losing hand to Ephrim, who then gathered up the deck. He sighed and settled back on his bedroll, dislodging Kodiak from his spot in the process. “The storm'll probably break any day now. But I guess we’ll see in the morning.”

“Here’s to hoping.” Ephrim ground the torch out on the dirt beneath them, the embers hissing in the damp. Then, he laid down too, and stared  up at the worn canvas. Kodiak curled at their feet with a huff, his tail thumping on the ground in a steady rhythm to carry them off to sleep.

 

Ephrim woke first to the cacophony of hail bombarding the tent, and he groaned. Throndir groaned too, fainter, but so close that Ephrim was too thrown by it to immediately notice the arm curling around his torso. He would’ve moved away— he’d  _ have _ to move eventually, he knew, either the hail would subside or Throndir would wake up or both, but he’d take what he could get and blame it on the cold. Doing nothing but sleeping and experiencing cold weather really took it out of you, after all. He put his hands on his face and silently prayed to whatever god controlled weather for… something other than hail to come down, and desperately hoped that god wasn’t Samothes.

Throndir mumbled and shifted, tightening his hold on his torso. Ephrim held his breath, reigned in the thoughts ready to trample over any of the more pressing issues than that of his friend spooning him. Namely, how the hail was really starting to make the tent’s walls shake now. Maybe Samothes really did control the weather. Wouldn't that have come up in the scriptures? 

A branch crashed down into the bushes near the tent, and Ephrim flinched.

“What?” Throndir said, startled awake by Ephrim’s elbow knocking into his side, his words muffled by Ephrim’s hair.

“Nothing, just a branch,” Ephrim said, squeezing his eyes shut. “Go back to sleep."

Throndir leaned back, becoming aware of their situation as he removed himself from it. To his credit, Ephrim thought, it felt like he hesitated before he lifted his arm up and away to rub at his eyes. Ephrim let out his breath. 

“Oh, sorry," Throndir murmured. His voice was low in his throat, and Ephrim wondered if he sounded like that every morning. "I… You’re really warm.”

It wasn’t until Throndir pulled away from him completely that Ephrim noticed just how comfortable he was with Throndir’s arms around him. He entertained the thought of rolling over so he could curl up against Throndir’s chest and continue sleeping through this hailstorm. He rolled onto his back instead.

"I've always run a little hot."

Ephrim could feel Throndir's sleepy laugh more than hear it, they were still so close. He smiled to himself. If he were to be bolder, he suspected Throndir wouldn’t mind it, but he kept to himself. Better safe than sorry. 

  
  


The hail turned to sleet turned to rain.

  
  



End file.
